Baby Jesus cries over how my engine bay looks. I changed the oil earlier and had to stand there and look at it for a while with a pitiful, ashamed look on my face. I really need to get on the ball with the rebuild/build 2.1 so I can get that mess back to a clean state. When I do the build, I will also try to have the car ready to paint so I can do the engine bay while I'm at it.

And you gotta love that big *** filter sucking up that nice warm air from the header. That is when it's not being soaked with dirty road water being splashed on it from not having the panel under the engine. Need to fix that as well.

Crinkle coat doesn't last forever. Having to redo it every few years is the price of not having to worry about blasting sand ending up in your valve cover vents.

Exactly. Plus I don't like the look of glossy valve covers. Wrinkle coat looks much better in my opinion, and is only about $5 every few years. Mine is about 2 or 3 years overdue. I actually just "touched it up" when I did the rebuild 4 years ago. Originally I did it right after I got the car about 5 or 6 years ago. Not bad for $5, or there about.